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Bug 1678634 - Installation of RHEL 8 fails to boot with message "Failed to switch root: Specified switch root path '/sysroot' does not seem to be an OS tree. os-release file is missing."
Summary: Installation of RHEL 8 fails to boot with message "Failed to switch root: Spe...
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED NOTABUG
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Classification: Red Hat
Component: anaconda
Version: 8.0
Hardware: x86_64
OS: Linux
medium
unspecified
Target Milestone: rc
: 8.0
Assignee: Anaconda Maintenance Team
QA Contact: Release Test Team
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2019-02-19 09:27 UTC by Jose Castillo
Modified: 2023-09-07 19:45 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2020-02-12 18:22:32 UTC
Type: Bug
Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Attachments (Terms of Use)
/run/initramfs/rdsosreport.txt in the failed state (80.94 KB, text/plain)
2019-06-01 05:54 UTC, Claude Frantz 		no flags Details
rdsosreport.txt with rd.debug and rd.shell options set (833.32 KB, text/plain)
2019-06-02 16:23 UTC, Claude Frantz 		no flags Details
View All

Description Jose Castillo 2019-02-19 09:27:51 UTC 
Description of problem:

RHEL 8 fails to boot in a KVM (on a RHEL 7.6 Hypervisor) after customer's install script has run. It stops with the error message:
Failed to start Swtich Root

/sysroot is empty at this point. 

In rdsosreport.txt we have:

[    2.252419] gimp systemctl[543]: Failed to switch root: Specified switch root path '/sysroot' does not seem to be an OS tree. os-release file is missing.


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

How reproducible:
This errors happens on 95% of all RHEL 8 installations in a KVM on customer's side.

Steps to Reproduce:
According to customer, steps to reproduce are:

1. install from RHEL 8 Snapshot 5 DVD
2. in anaconda manually configure the partitions to 
[root@elst ~]# df -Th
Filesystem                Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
devtmpfs                  devtmpfs  8.3G     0  8.3G   0% /dev
tmpfs                     tmpfs     8.3G     0  8.3G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs                     tmpfs     8.3G  8.7M  8.3G   1% /run
tmpfs                     tmpfs     8.3G     0  8.3G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mapper/root_vg-root  xfs        22G  4.8G   18G  22% /
/dev/mapper/oral_vg-oral  xfs       200G  1.5G  199G   1% /oral
/dev/mapper/orac_vg-orac  xfs       400G  2.9G  397G   1% /orac
/dev/mapper/home_vg-home  xfs       100G  747M  100G   1% /home
/dev/vda1                 xfs       994M  171M  824M  18% /boot
/dev/mapper/root_vg-var   xfs       9.8G  346M  9.5G   4% /var
/dev/mapper/root_vg-core  xfs       7.4G   85M  7.3G   2% /var/core
/dev/mapper/root_vg-log   xfs       9.8G  121M  9.7G   2% /var/log
/dev/mapper/root_vg-audit xfs       4.9G   69M  4.9G   2% /var/log/audit
tmpfs                     tmpfs     1.7G  4.0K  1.7G   1% /run/user/0
3. choose minimal installation (we have seen the error with other configurations too)
4. I also configured the time zone and the NIC, but this should be irrelevant
5. start the installation
6. you need access to the repositories:
rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-htb-rpms 
rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-htb-rpms 
codeready-builder-htb-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms
7. yum install perl-Net-Ping perl-URI
8. ./linux_trailer -A

Actual results:
The system cannot boot.

Expected results:
The system boots normally.

Additional info:
I'll attach the linux_trailer script and other config files to the bz.
Comment 3 Samantha N. Bueno 2019-02-19 21:16:43 UTC 
Does a basic installation work, e.g. without running the "linux_trailer" script? Would it be possible to attach installation logs (in /tmp before reboot)? Right now it's difficult to pinpoint what might have gone wrong/where.
Comment 8 Claude Frantz 2019-05-30 17:42:56 UTC 
I observe the same behaviour on a 32 bit Fedora 30, after the system upgrade, using "dnf system-upgrade", coming from Fedora 28. When calling "systemctl status initrd-switch-root.service", the same status about missing os-release file and /sysroot can be seen here, on my system. I have a simple laptop with a single HD drive. 

Is there an interim solution available ?
Comment 9 Claude Frantz 2019-06-01 04:35:58 UTC 
I seems difficult to me to copy the installation log in /tmp, because, in the state where the error occurs, I cannot mount an USB stick and I have no access to /boot. Only very few executables are available. 

In the past, a very similar error has been reported to bugzilla, related to an older release.
Comment 10 Claude Frantz 2019-06-01 05:54:08 UTC 
Created attachment 1575861 [details]
/run/initramfs/rdsosreport.txt in the failed state

Remember that I'm reporting about Fedora 30
Comment 11 Claude Frantz 2019-06-01 05:57:14 UTC 
When trying to boot using the F28 kernel, which is still available after the upgrade, the problem reported here appears too. Before the upgrade, this kernel worked well.
Comment 12 Claude Frantz 2019-06-02 07:12:51 UTC 
While observing the supplied log, I'm surprised about this sequence:

[   11.889392] deby audit[1]: SERVICE_START pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=kernel msg='unit=plymouth-switch-root comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
[   11.889871] deby audit[1]: SERVICE_STOP pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=kernel msg='unit=plymouth-switch-root comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'

.......

[   12.147882] deby audit[1]: SERVICE_START pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=kernel msg='unit=initrd-switch-root comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=failed'
Comment 13 Claude Frantz 2019-06-02 16:23:25 UTC 
Created attachment 1576339 [details]
rdsosreport.txt with rd.debug and rd.shell options set

In the emergency shell, I have entered:

ln -s /dev/sda7 /dev/root
exit

Later, the system stops again.
Comment 14 Jan Stodola 2020-02-12 18:22:32 UTC 
I'm closing this bug based on comment 6.

Claude, could you please report the issue you are seeing against Fedora Product if you are still able to reproduce it?
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